Sundays in Bed With… Witch For Hire

The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.

This Sunday I’m reading Witch For Hire by Ted Naifeh.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

When a series of high school pranks get out of hand, teen witch Faye Faulkner is the only one who can solve the case in this spooky YA graphic novel

Faye Faulker isn’t popular, and that’s just fine by her. She spends her lunches at the Loser Table with the other social rejects, aka her best friends, and brushes off the uninspired taunts from the cool kids. But when lonely freshman Cody finds her way to Faye’s corner of the cafeteria, it sets off a peculiar chain of events . . . To Cody’s surprise, these kids aren’t so bad; an overdramatic theater nerd, a handicapable girl in a wheelchair, an overweight boy, and Faye, who comes to school every day dressed like a witch. But it’s no costume, Fay really is a witch!

While high school can be hell for many reasons, this year the ante has been raised when a series of pranks swiftly go from mischievous to downright dangerous. From the lowliest debate team nerds to the prom queen, no one is safe, not even the teachers! When things start to really get out of hand, Cody owns up to Faye: in a moment of desperation, she signed up for an online challenge that promises to grant popularity to those who follow the website’s twisted demands.

Now Faye is faced with a choice: Reveal her witchy nature to Cody and help her or stand aside and keep her secret identity safe. Despite her misgivings, Faye takes on the case, but will her powers be strong enough to solve this mystery? And will people ever stop asking her if she puts newts’ eyes in her homemade baked goods? Witch for Hire is a gothic whodunnit about resilience, magic, and the power of friendship.

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – 2021 Books I Would Reread

This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.

This week’s prompt is 2021 Books I Would Reread. Here’s my list:

1. Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories by Charlie Jane Anders

2. Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon

3. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

4. The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

5. Lucky by Marissa Stapley

6. Jane Austen Investigates: The Abbey Mystery by Julia Golding

(All book covers from Goodreads)

Did you make a Six for Sunday list?

Review: Sugar Town Queens

Title: Sugar Town Queens
Author: Malla Nunn
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 3, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

From LA Times Book Prize Award Winner and Edgar Award Nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and the bonds that knit our communities.

When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday she knows it’s going to be one of her mother’s difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. If Amandla wears a blue sheet her mother has loosely stitched as a dress and styles her normally braided hair in a halo around her head, Amandla’s father will come home. Amandla’s mother, Annalisa, always speaks of her father as if he was the prince of a fairytale, but in truth he’s been gone since before Amandla was born and even Annalisa’s memory of him is hazy. In fact many of Annalisa’s memories from before Amandla was born are hazy. It’s just one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give Annalisa and Amandla strange looks–that and the fact her mother is white and Amandla is brown.

But when Amandla finds a mysterious address in the bottom of her mother’s handbag along with a large amount of cash, she decides it’s finally time to get answers about her mother’s life. But what she discovers will change the shape and size of her family forever.

Review:

Amandla is a fifteen-year-old girl in South Africa. Her mother has visions of the future that don’t often come true. She also has missing memories from her past, including the identity of Amandla’s father. Amandla and her mother stand out, not just because of her mother’s strange visions, but because her mother is white and she is half-Black. When Amandla finds a paper with an address in her mother’s purse, she decides to go there to learn more about her mother’s past. She discovers deeper family secrets than she could have predicted.

Race was an important issue in this book. There is a history of race tensions in South Africa which was depicted in this novel. Amandla had to deal with that first hand, since she had a different appearance from her mother.

There were class prejudices that went along with the race prejudice. The white people were considered “good” and upper class, while the Black people were “bad” or dangerous and lower class. However, one of Amandla’s white relatives was arguably one of the worst characters in the book and treated her mother horribly. Money, power, and skin colour don’t determine if a person is good or bad.

Sugar Town Queens is an eye opening young adult novel.

Thank you G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Your Corner Dark by Desmond Hall

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

Have you read Sugar Town Queens? What did you think of it?

Review: Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories

Title: Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories
Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher: Tor
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 17, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

From Charlie Jane Anders, the award-winning author of novels such as All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night, this is one of the most practical guides to storytelling that you will ever read.

The world is on fire.
So tell your story.

Things are scary right now. We’re all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not helpless: we have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible.

Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency, Never Say You Can’t Survive is the perfect manual for creativity in unprecedented times.

Review:

This book is about using your personal struggles to write. It referenced the pandemic, and the way it has changed the way we write. Some people were more creative and inspired last year, while others couldn’t write at all. Writing can be a therapeutic way to express your feelings, or it can be an act of resistance.

I appreciated how current the writing tips were in this book. There were many references to the way our lifestyles have changed in the past year. Even if they weren’t personally impacted by Covid, everyone had to alter some part of their lifestyle. Though I’m not ready to read a fictional book set during the pandemic, this writing book was so informative for writing in 2021.

There were references to a variety of types and styles of stories. There were plenty of science fiction examples, such as Doctor Who and Star Trek, but there were other types of stories as well, like The Baby-Sitter’s Club. A wide range of authors were also mentioned, from Neil Gaiman to Alyssa Cole. I loved seeing all of these familiar works referenced in this writing book.

There were so many great writing tips in this book. I highlighted many passages in my digital copy, which I’ve never done before. I will have to get a physical copy to reference while I write, because I know I will be returning to this book again and again during my writing career.

Never Say You Can’t Survive is a fabulous writing book!

Thank you Tor for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

Have you read Never Say You Can’t Survive? What did you think of it?

Review: Evie and the Truth About Witches

Title: Evie and the Truth About Witches
Author: John Martz
Genre: Children’s, Picture Book, Fantasy
Publisher: Tundra Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 17, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Evie wants to be scared, but she’ll get more than she bargained for in this thrilling, witchy chapter book adventure! For fans of Sir Simon: Super Scarer and other spooky, kid-friendly books.

Evie wants to be scared, and the usual scary stories just aren’t doing it for her anymore. When she stumbles across a different sort of book, The Truth about Witches, she hopes she’s found something thrilling . . . but she’s forbidden by a kindly shopkeeper from reading the last page out loud! Naturally, her curiosity gets the better of her, and upon reading the last page out loud — a real summoning spell — Evie is spirited off to a strange land of magic, weird creatures, feasts and actual witches! They’re not as scary as they seem, until Evie asks to join their ranks . . . and only once she does is her quest for true scariness satisfied . . .

Review:

Evie wanted to read a scary book, so she went to a bookstore that specialized in scary books. She chose the book called The Truth About Witches. The bookseller warned her not to read the last page out loud. When Evie read the book before bed, she learned a lot about witches but wasn’t very scared. Though she knew she shouldn’t, she read the last page out loud. Evie had to face the life changing consequences of not following that rule.

This story would be perfect for Halloween. The illustrations were in black, white, and orange, giving it a Halloween theme. It also had a spooky theme with the witches that Evie learned about and eventually met.

The ending of this story really surprised me. It was abrupt and unexpected. As an adult, I loved it, but it could be a creepy ending for a child reader. It does teach an important lesson about listening and following rules, which Evie didn’t do.

Evie and the Truth About Witches is a spooky new children’s book!

Thank you Tundra Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Black and Bittern Was Night by Robert Heidbreder, John Martz

Do Frogs Drink Hot Chocolate?: How Animals Keep Warm by Etta Kaner, John Martz

Have you read Evie and the Truth About Witches? What did you think of it?

TBR Thursday – August 19

TBR Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, where you post a title from your shelf or e-reader and find out what others think about it.

My pick this week is The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

A Cinderella story with deadly stakes and thrilling twists.

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why–or even who Tobias Hawthorne is. To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch–and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. 

Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review: This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart #1)

Title: This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart #1)
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: June 29, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron’s new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.

From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.

Review:

Briseis has the gift of growing plants, but she has to hide it most of the time. When her biological aunt, Circe, dies, Bri inherits a rundown estate in upstate New York. Bri and her moms go to the new home for the summer, where Bri will finally be able to use her gift freely. Strangers start showing up at the house, wanting to buy plants and elixirs from the apothecary that her aunt used to run. Bri is left with cryptic letters that lead her to a Poison Garden behind the house. As Bri explores her new home, she discovers secrets in her family tree. Bri must learn all of the secrets to save her current family.

This story was filled with Greek mythology, which I didn’t expect. I love Greek mythology, but I wasn’t familiar with some of the figures and stories in this book. I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t say how this mythology was used, but it was very cleverly woven through the plot.

I was suspicious of most of the characters that Bri met at her new home. There were a lot of things that didn’t make sense at the beginning, but they were explained by the end. The story ended on a great cliffhanger, so I can’t wait to read the next book!

This Poison Heart is a great fantasy!

What to read next:

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Have you read This Poison Heart? What did you think of it?

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – August 18

This is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. In this post we highlight a book that’s highly anticipated.

The book that I’m waiting on this Wednesday is The Bones of Ruin (The Bones of Ruin #1) by Sarah Raughley. The expected publication date is September 7, 2021.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange. She is certainly a strange sight for leering British audiences always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture…​

She cannot die. 

Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering who she is. But that mission gets more complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam Temple, a member of a mysterious order called the Enlightenment Committee. Adam seems to know much more about her than he lets on, and he shares with her a terrifying revelation: the world is ending, and the Committee will decide who lives…and who doesn’t. 

To help them choose a leader for the upcoming apocalypse, the Committee is holding the Tournament of Freaks, a macabre competition made up of vicious fighters with fantastical abilities. Adam wants Iris to be his champion, and in return he promises her the one thing she wants most: the truth about who she really is. 

If Iris wants to learn about her shadowy past, she has no choice but to fight. But the further she gets in the grisly tournament, the more she begins to remember—and the more she wonders if the truth is something best left forgotten.

What books are you waiting on this week?

Happy Pub Day – August 17

Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!

Evie and the Truth About Witches by John Martz

Cazadora by Romina Garber

The Merchant and the Rogue by Sarah M. Eden

Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko

Phantom Heart by Kelly Creagh

Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories by Charlie Jane Anders

How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

Dagger Hill by Devon Taylor

Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America by Margarita Longoria (editor)

Ashfall Legacy by Pittacus Lore

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride

The Endless Skies by Shannon Price

What books are you most excited for this week?

Top Ten Tuesday – Favourite Places to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is Favourite Places to Read. Here’s my list:

1. On the couch

2. In bed

3. In the backyard

4. On the beach

5. In the park

6. In waiting rooms

7. In the car (audiobooks or while parked and waiting for someone)

8. On a plane

9. In a mall

10. In a checkout line of a store 😂

What’s your list of places to read for Top Ten Tuesday?